Midstate students learn how to investigate the world at science fairs

CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-NewsConor Leary, 17, discusses his proj­ect about the effects of land usage on Yel­low Breeches Creek’s water quality at the Carlisle School District Science Fair last month. For Conor Leary, the meeting of his course work and real life was the best part of his first science fair.

Taking what he’d learned in an elective geo-environmental science class, the 17-year-old Carlisle High School senior studied the effects of land use on the Yellow Breeches Creek.

In spite of a few problems — a faulty meter and a flooded creek that skewed some results — Leary said working through them helped clarify his desire to pursue a career in the sciences.

“It was a fulfilling experience,” he said.

Schools and teachers face an array of pressures these days, such as state budget cuts and high-stakes standardized tests. While some older teaching techniques have fallen by the wayside, midstate schools seem to be sticking with the time-honored tradition of science fair projects.

From now until mid-March, students will be presenting projects at school and regional competitions. In two weeks, the Capital Area Science and Engineering Fair, which draws students from districts around the midstate, will take place at Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts.

Participation is most popu­lar, and compulsory, at the middle school level. Teachers said that’s because middle school is the last time all stu­dents have the same roster of classes. There’s also an enthu­siasm to question assumptions.

Rachel Wright, a sixth-grad­er at Yellow Breeches Middle School in Boiling Springs, has participated in science fairs since the fourth grade.

This year, she studied the effects of diet soda on blood sugar. She thought Diet Pepsi would have the least effect, but it turned out ginger ale did.

“I like learning about differences and about things we haven’t learned yet,” Rachel said.

Her mom, Donna, said the projects don’t take too much time. They also teach her daughter about time management, being consistent and even some career exploration.

“And when we parents come around to see all the projects, we learn facts we weren’t aware of,” Donna Wright said with a laugh.

The long-running Capital Area Science and Engineering Fair, which had its deadline for projects this week, has drawn students into higher-level competition for decades.

Tim Ritter, the fair’s director, said entry space has been maxed out every year, both at the previous venue at Dickinson College and at Whitaker.

About 300 projects that meet the fair’s strict criteria, which include rules about human and animal subject testing and chemicals, are accepted every year.

School participation varies from year to year, Ritter said, because shepherding the projects takes an immense amount of time for teachers.

One district — he declined to say which — dropped out this year to evaluate its entire curriculum and decide whether the time devoted to participation was beneficial to students.

Ritter said he believes the fair — plus the local-level competitions — are vital to students understanding scientific concepts.

Because the Pennsylvania Department of Education only mandates the concepts schools must teach, schools have a variety of approaches to science fair.

At East Pennsboro, students in honors-level classes in grades 9 to 11 must complete either a project or an annotated bibliography on a science-based concept, said Superintendent Bruce Deveney.

Seventh-graders in upper-level math courses also are required to create a project. Eighth-graders, who have a science PSSA, focus more on testing that year.

The district has not participated in the Capital Area competition for several years because student interest waned, he said. However, should a student wish to participate, Deveney said the district would work with him or her to make that happen.

In Camp Hill, sixth-graders have a mandatory science fair project, said Peggy Curran-Hays, a spokeswoman for the district. This year, the district appointed a science fair coordinator — paid a small stipend — with the goal of sending quality projects to Capital Area.

Derry Township has no mandatory criteria, nor has it ever in recent memory, said district spokesman Dan Tredennick.

Pam Foster is a biology teacher and head of the Carlisle Area School District’s 6-12 science department. She is also in charge of the 53-year-old regional science fair, which invites students from Carlisle, Boiling Springs and private schools to compete.

Carlisle leaves it up to each teacher, Foster said, though AP physics students and some eighth-grade classes do have a requirement.

Foster said she’s a proponent of participatory learning.

“It makes it more real, more applicable,” Foster said. “I can memorize stuff, but do I really understand it? Kids can realize we use the scientific method all the time. If we flick a switch and a light doesn’t go on, we begin problem-solving.”

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